Canada announced Immigration level targets 2018-2020

Canada announced Immigration level targets 2018-2020

Canada announced Immigration level targets 2018-2020

In the words of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, 300,000 is the “new normal” for Canadian immigration. 300,000 was the overall immigration target for 2016 and 2017. Now, IRCC has announced that the 2018 target will increase to 310,000 overall new immigrants to Canada. By 2019, the target will further increase to 330,000 and by 2020 it will be 340,000. All told, that’s nearly one million newcomers entering Canada between 2018 and 2020!

2018 COMPARED TO 2017

The targets for the coming year are very similar to the ones that were set for 2017. Even more, newcomers will be arriving through federal economic streams managed by the Express Entry system. IRCC is also planning to accept more provincial nominees in 2018 than they did in 2017.

Canada also plans to welcome more newcomers through family sponsorship streams in 2018. The Parents and Grandparents sponsorship program, which was restructured in 2017 to be a lottery system, doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 in 2017. In 2018, another 21,000 parents and grandparents will be able to join their families in Canada.

Immigration Category

Category

2018 Target

2017 Target

Economic

177,500

172,000

Federal Economic, includes:

Federal Skilled Worker Program

Federal Skilled Trades Program

Canadian Experience Class

Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program

75,900

73,700

Federal Caregivers

17,000

18,000

Federal Business

700

500

Provincial Nominee Program

55,000

51,000

Quebec Skilled Workers and Business

28,900

29,300

Family

87,000

84,000

Spouses, Partners, and Children

66,000

64,000

Parents and Grandparents

21,000

20,000

Refugees and Protected Persons

43,000

40,0000

Protected Persons in Canada and Dependents Abroad

16,000

15,000

Resettled Refugees

27,000

25,000

Government-Assisted Refugees

7,500

7,500

Blended Visa Office-Referred

1,500

1,500

Privately Sponsored

18,000

16,000

Humanitarian and Other

3,500

3,500

Total

310,000

300,000

While almost every category of immigration is expected to grow over the next three years, by far the biggest growth is planned for the Federal Economic and Provincial Nominee Program categories. Not coincidentally, these are the categories that are currently managed by the very successful Express Entry system.